Brand constellations: reflections of the emotional self
| Pages | 134-147 |
| Date | 18 April 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-02-2015-0806 |
| Published date | 18 April 2016 |
| Author | Richard L. Flight,Kesha K. Coker |
| Subject Matter | Marketing,Product management,Brand management/equity |
Brand constellations: reflections of the
emotional self
Richard L. Flight and Kesha K. Coker
Department of Marketing, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role that enduring consumer emotional traits play in brand constellation formation. Theories
of self-image and brand-image congruence are used as the foundation to explain how complex brand constellations are a reflection of emotional
dispositions.
Design/methodology/approach – A clustering technique based on 24 consumption emotion set items was used to analyze data from 287
consumers and 66 different consumer brands. A conjoint analysis was also performed to examine the degree of brand congruence within each
cluster.
Findings – Results reveal four unique consumer clusters (Sad, Passionate, Joyful, and Balanced Middle) with unique brand constellations and
differing degrees of brand congruence. Of significance is the Sad cluster, which shows a strong brand congruence to seemingly hedonic products.
Research limitations/implications – Given the nature of self-reported data, an inherent potential bias because of a single source for both
dependent and independent variables exists. Also, this research design is based on an inductive form of reasoning, and thus, results may not be
falsifiable.
Practical implications – Implications of brand constellations based on emotional dispositions for marketing theory and practice are discussed.
Given this exploratory research on brand constellations defined by emotional disposition, limitations and avenues for future research are also
presented.
Social implications – In this paper, the consumer’s enduring psychological traits act as the grouping mechanism, and from this psychometric
profile, brands group to reflect the collective self-image of consumers based on emotional disposition. By introducing the emotional disposition
approach to constellation formation, the authors demonstrate that psychometric variables offer a new methodology by which brands may be
categorized.
Originality/value – Using a cluster analysis to essentially reverse-engineer consumption patterns is novel and reflects a valid approach toward
demonstrating how otherwise unrelated brands may be consumed together.
Keywords Brand personality, Consumer psychology, Brand congruency, Product, Brand experience, Self image
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
At its origin, the branding literature has focused on “singular
brands”, though in reality consumers regularly evaluate “a
complex plurality of brands” (Jevons et al., 2005, p. 300). To
this end, “single brands are often chosen together with other
brands from complementary product categories” (Lange,
2005, p. 465). As a result, the consumer’s perspective of the
branding landscape or brandscape (Sherry, 1986) is a complex
amalgam of individually distinct components that become
blended to reflect complex “brand constellations” (Jevons
et al., 2005, p. 300). Consumption patterns spanning diverse
product categories can be integrated into a single
phenomenon:
The notion that products are not consumed in a vacuum, but are instead an
integral part of consumers’ social lives, highlights the need for marketers to
better understand how sets of culturally meaningful products are used by
consumers to define themselves and others (Solomon and Assael, 1987,
p. 191).
The consumption of a collection of products serves to reflect
an individual’s personal or social condition. While individual
products provide symbolic meaning for consumers, a
collection of products forms to express a social situation or in
the current research reflect, in totality, the self-image of the
consumer. Accordingly, “consumption research suggests that
products are often purchased and consumed for their symbolic
[cues] value as well as their pragmatic utility” (Bagozzi, 1975;
Belk, 1978;Gardner and Levy, 1955); “[. . .] consumers look
to the total collection of cues in the environment to decode the
meanings present there and to structure their behavior
accordingly” (Solomon, 1983;Solomon and Assael, 1987,
p. 191). Thus, the consumption of multiple products (or
brands) promotes a symbolic portrayal of consumers
themselves. The idea that individuals express their social
condition or status in such a way can be traced to the study by
Veblen (1912/1899), who proposed (in 1899) that the
collection (or inventory) of possessions reflects social class
standing, and later affirmed by authors such as Levy (1964),
who further suggested that one’s personality is revealed
through a collection of products consumed.
Despite Solomon’s (1988, p. 234) early call for researchers
to identify “sets of consumption stimuli” used by consumers,
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
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Journal of Product & Brand Management
25/2 (2016) 134–147
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-02-2015-0806]
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